


Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu Naboo wgah'nagl fhtagn, or, How Rey and Kylo Ren Saved the Galaxy

by leoba



Series: Scary Stories [9]
Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canonverse AU, F/M, Finn Narrates, Force-Sensitive Finn, Great Old Ones, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), POV Finn (Star Wars), POV First Person, Reylo - Freeform, background finnrose - Freeform, post-TFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-18 20:23:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16524014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leoba/pseuds/leoba
Summary: After the destruction of Starkiller Base, Snoke summons the Great Old Ones in an attempt to help him take over the galaxy. Needless to say that doesn’t go as planned, and it’s up to Rey and other Force sensitives to figure out how to defeat the Great Old Ones and return peace to the galaxy.





	Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu Naboo wgah'nagl fhtagn, or, How Rey and Kylo Ren Saved the Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story for the first Reylo Fan Fiction Anthology back in 2016 (a retelling of the fairy tale The Old Woman and the Woods), and I'm thrilled to have finally finished it! 
> 
> All my thanks to beta extraordinaire lovethemfirecely, and to thisgarbagepicker for giving it the final read.

I'm not sure how to start. There's a lot I want to say but I don't want to take a lot of time to say it. So I guess I'll start with me. This isn't about me, really, but I played enough of a role to know what went on.

My name's Finn, but I hope you know me. At the time of this recording I am a lieutenant in The Coalition. The Coalition, as you should know, was first formed in the immediate aftermath of the Great Invasion. Resistance, Republic, First Order, anyone who wanted to fight banded together. It was ugly and uncomfortable a lot of the time there at the beginning, but we were joined in something much bigger than ourselves and most of us recognized that and acted accordingly. Before I was in The Coalition I was a member of the Resistance, and before that I was a stormtrooper for the First Order. They conscripted me as a baby; there was nothing for me before that.

The Great Invasion was completely unexpected. I mean, you never expect something like that, but it came  _ so quickly _ after the destruction of the Starkiller, it was just one thing after another. We found out later that Hux and Snoke had been working towards it for a while - years, even - but they only got serious about it after Starkiller. It was like a last-ditch effort to take control. Didn't work out the way they planned, did it?

It's hard to explain the Great Invasion to someone who didn't experience it. I know you will have heard other stories about it but there's just no way they could even come close to describing the horror of the thing. I can't either, though I'd like to. Or… actually, I wouldn’t like to. But I will. I can try anyway.

For myself, it all started with a headache. I'll never forget it; I was having a drink with Poe Dameron (you  **will** have heard of Poe) and all of a sudden I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. It felt like something was  _ inside my head _ , twisting around in my brain. But worse than that, worse than the pain, was the terror. Like my mind was replaced by a horrible thing I couldn't even come close to comprehending. Luckily it only lasted a moment before I blacked out completely. When I came to I was lying on the floor, Poe cradling my head in his lap and yelling for help. My head still hurt like a bitch. Uh, pardon my language. It hurt real bad. And everything felt weird on top of that, like the whole world tipped sideways. Poe told me later that he felt the same way. Everybody did. But the headache, and the dreams that followed, that was just for me and a few lucky others.

Everything happened very quickly after that. Poe helped me to the medbay; there were a few others already there, in the same condition as me. A minute after we arrived General Organa - Leia - was carried in. She was out cold but shaking like a leaf in the breeze. I could see her eyes moving behind her eyelids, fluttering so quickly back and forth ... ah, sorry. That might be too much. Anyway, let me tell you that seeing one of the strongest people you know laid out like that is a terrifying thing. And it was all made worse because we had no idea what was going on.

This all happened just a few months after I officially joined the Resistance, a few months after Rey went to train with Luke on Ahch-To; I know you know who they are. Anyway, just a few minutes before my headache hit and everything went to h... I mean, went terribly wrong, Rey sent a distress signal calling for immediate extraction for her and Luke. She said a lot of stuff that only made sense later, and man I heard the message and she sounded so scared. It was lucky she had time to send it. I can't imagine what would have happened otherwise.

A guy named Snap Wexley led the extraction team, and he told me about it. They found Luke in the hut he shared with Rey. Rey and Luke had been in the middle of a meal; plates of stew had been pushed across the table and had fallen to the ground. Luke was sprawled on the floor. Rey was in the shuttle slumped over the control panel. She'd apparently had just enough time to send the distress call before she passed out. That she'd been able to send it at all was a miracle. They were in the same condition as Leia: out cold and shivering. The three people that we'd normally depend on in times like that, down and out.

Even while the extraction was happening we were getting word of what was going on elsewhere in the galaxy. Reports were coming in of a few people passing out in the same manner as Leia, Luke and Rey, including Maz Kanata and children from most worlds. Larger numbers of people had headaches like mine, more or less debilitating. One thing that became very clear even in the first day was that everyone being struck down by whatever it was was a Force-sensitive, and the stronger the Force sensitivity the harder the hit. Some of us had dreams when we slept, and others just dreamed all the time.

So yeah, that's how I discovered I was a Force-sensitive. It was a shock, sure, but I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it.

The only group we didn't hear from immediately was the First Order. We had spies embedded, of course, and we knew that they were up to something new although we didn't know exactly what it was. As I mentioned it was very hush-hush, just a few high-level people involved in the plan. It wasn't until Phasma showed up with a ship full of stormtroopers that we were finally able to figure out what was going on.

But hold up, I'm getting ahead of myself. Rey and Luke came back before Phasma. They were put in the infirmary with the General, while the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with them, if there was some way to wake them up. I spent all my spare time there, with Rey. I barely knew her, you know, but I loved her; she was my first real friend, and she saved me, her and Poe. So I sat with her, just waiting to see if she'd wake up. Poe sat with us when he had time.

That’s where we were when we found out about Naboo, me and Poe. We were watching the news on the holonet when the first reports came through. Something colossal had come up from the Naboo Abyss and onto the Paitnnu Wetlands. It had apparently decimated Otoh Gunga; the surface-dwellers had lost contact with the water-dwellers some hours before. By the time it reached Moenia there was a small military contingent that had just arrived from Theed but it was still mostly civilians. They didn’t know enough to run.

At first, on the holo, all you could see was mist - it’s always misty around Moenia. But then, although we couldn’t hear anything at first, the holo started to shake and slowly a patch of dark moved through the mist, growing closer and closer. An absolutely enormous patch of dark, it would have covered up the sun if there was a sun in the sky to cover. The soldiers started shooting before it came clear, but it didn’t make a difference. The blasters didn’t slow it down, and even through the sound of the blaster shots and screaming we could still hear the steady plod of the creature’s footsteps.

And when it finally broke through the mist, well… how can I even explain it? It was, as I said, enormous, not only tall but heavy, clearly not designed to walk on land although it did have two legs and two … well, I guess they were front legs, although the thing only walked on the back legs and used the front ones to pull itself along on its claws. Its skin was dark and greenish-grey, and the details of its face were obscured by a mass of feelers that spread out from where you’d expect its nose to be. The thing was thick, and slow, and powerful, and unstoppable.

And it had a  _ voice _ . I mean, it was making noise, but it wasn’t roaring. It was talking, not in any language I’d ever heard. A terrible language you never want to hear. Its voice was awful, deep and wet, like something rotten pulled up from under the ground. Death and decay and madness were in that voice. And as soon as it started speaking the soldiers stopped shooting. They just stopped. They set down their blasters and then they… I’m sorry. I’ve forgotten who I’m speaking to. You don’t need to hear this. I’m sure you get the idea.

It soon became clear it wasn’t only Naboo. Over the next several days there were reports of monsters appearing on other planets throughout the galaxy: an immense spider on Tatooine; hulking, shape-shifting blobs on Kashyyyk that cut through the trees like butter; a gargantuan serpent with wings on Coruscant itself. The creatures were different but they were all impervious to weapons and they all spoke the same language, in the same voice, the voice that caused obedience and madness in equal parts. Every day, more reports. Every day, more planets falling to the invaders. 

Three days after the Invasion started Poe was at another emergency meeting - they were all emergency meetings, those days - so it was just me in the medbay, sitting with Rey, keeping her company. She's lying there, shivering, pale as can be, and she suddenly sits up, like  _ shoots up _ in her bed. Scared me nearly to death, let me tell you. I had to help her pull out the tubes and things before she could even talk.

After her initial shock, she was calm. I was surprised at how calm she was. I wanted to send a message up to the leaders, let them know she was awake, but she wouldn’t let me. She gave me a big hug, thanked me for sitting with her, told me she missed me, asked when was the last time I'd seen her. In answer to her question, I said I hadn't seen her since the fight with Kylo Ren on the Starkiller. She smiled at that, but it was a sad smile. Then she said she wanted to go outside and sit in the sun.

There was a little hill just above the landing area on D’Qar, with a few trees around a clearing. We went up there and sat together. I was happy to see her but her silence and calm made me uncomfortable. I mean, you know how she is usually. She’s full of energy and never shuts up. But this… this was something new, not  _ bad _ , but different. And with how everything else was going, I was willing to give her time.

She just sat on the ground for a while. Maybe she was meditating - eyes closed, facing the sun. Or maybe she was just enjoying the light on her face. I never asked. And right when I was gearing up to interrupt her quiet, she opened her eyes and spoke up.

“Tell me what happened.” 

So I told her. I told her about the headache, the dreams, Leia and Luke, and the monsters, and everything feeling sideways. She didn’t interrupt me, and she didn’t seem surprised. As I spoke she sat, looking at me, with a thoughtful expression on her face. 

When I was done, she nodded. “That sounds about right. That makes a lot of sense.” She smiled at me again, sadly again.

I asked her why she’d been … whatever she’d been, and what happened with Leia and Luke, and why she was awake.

She sighed. “We’re fighting. Against the Invaders. Fighting in the Force. They’re in there with us. The monsters, I mean. And it’s not just the three of us. There aren’t many Force-sensitives left in the galaxy, but we’re all in there. You're there too, in your dreams, but you don't remember, do you.” 

I had to admit that I didn't. I knew that I'd been dreaming the past few nights, dreams that were different from what I'd had before. I remembered having dreams. I remembered voices, presence, comfort, love, even, but I never remembered the dreams themselves. “What are the dreams, Rey?” I asked her.

She swallowed and looked at the ground. “It’s… hard to explain. We’re working together. You too, even if you don't know it. This, waking me up, was a test. If I can remember this after I go back to the dream, if I can wake up again, then we can communicate. There are things we can do to fight this.” She picked at the ground and looked guilty. “But I don’t think I’ll be awake for long, so you’d better get be back to the medbay.” 

As we walked down the hill, Rey gripped my arm. “Just, Finn,” she looked in my eyes. “No more feeding tube, not yet. If I don't wake up tomorrow, then they can put one back in, okay?” I said sure, and crossed my fingers that I'd be able to talk to her again soon.

* * *

That evening was when Captain Phasma showed up with a transport full of stormtroopers. They’d come from Arkanis, where the First Order was headquartered, and they were a mess. Phasma had been my commanding officer during my time with the First Order, so I knew her pretty well, had seen her in all kinds of situations, and she never came across as anything other than calm and collected - even the last time I saw her, when we pushed her into a trash compactor on Starkiller. The woman who came off that transport was barely recognizable. Her chrome-plated armor was dark and dingy, and covered with scratches, and her helmet was missing. She was barely holding herself together, there was a frantic energy behind her eyes as she barreled down the ramp, heedless of the Resistance troops gathered with blasters pointed right at her. She ran right into Admiral  Holdo, incoherent. The ‘troopers weren’t much better; some of them were so far gone they’d had to be tied up for the protection of the others. But she had news. Boy, did she have news.

It turned out the invasion had started on Arkanis. It was General Hux’s fault, of course. Several years before,  on a routine stopover on some backwater planet on the Outer Rim, Hux had come across a group worshiping a pantheon they call the Great Old Ones. These Old Ones were led by a creature - a god, a monster, whatever - which the worshippers believed exists across all time and space, but is somehow trapped and unable to be anywhere at all. Everywhere and nowhere at once. They called it  _ Yog Sothoth _ . They believed that this creature was the head of a pantheon travelling between universes and dimensions, conquering everyone; supposedly they acquired followers wherever they went, rewarding them with power and riches. Hux was apparently just interested enough to take with him holos of their statues, bits of jewelry, and their most sacred texts, which they claimed holds the secrets of summoning the Great Old Ones.

Hux delivered these items and information to Snoke, who thought that he could use the Great Old Ones, if he needed to, in his quest to take control of the galaxy. Nothing was done and the data was archived, but then when the Starkiller plan fell apart he had them brought out and went through the steps to summon them. It worked, but not exactly the way Snoke had anticipated. 

Phasma wasn’t present during the ritual, but she was guarding the summoning chamber. Her descriptions don’t bear repeating. Clearly anyone in the chamber, including Hux, Snoke, and Kylo Ren, were dead. Phasma ran, gathered as many ‘troopers as she could, took a transport, and abandoned the planet. They knew that the Resistance was headquartered on D’Qar, and for some reason decided that was the best place to go.

They weren’t the only ones to make the pilgrimage to D'Qar, either. Other groups from the First Order, as well as small bands of all races, from invaded planets and from others, were converging on the Resistance headquarters. It seemed to be the place that they were drawn to. 

* * *

Rey woke up again the next day, about the same time, and I was ready with food and with Admiral Statura by my side, and a healthy helping of relief for myself.

We all went up to the hill again, Rey inhaling her food and grimacing into the sun. Statura filled her in on the arrival of the First Order troops. She seemed surprised, but not shocked. She seemed pleased.

“We planned that,” she said with a satisfied smile. She reached out and squeezed my hand, just briefly. “ _ You _ planned it. In a dream. Do you remember?” I had been making an effort to remember the dreams, but with no luck. I shook my head, and she looked a bit disappointed, sad.

Whatever psychological effects the experience on Arkanis had on Phasma and her ‘troopers seemed to be short lived, and they claimed to be feeling better and wanted to do whatever they could. None of us were really sure what that meant. There didn’t seem to be a way to fight the monsters; they were effectively immune to our weapons. We tried bombs and things, of course we did, there seemed to be nothing that could physically injure them. This wasn’t a fight that would be won with blasters or lightsabers. Wookiees from Kashyyyk told stories of individuals throwing themselves and their children as sacrifices straight into the shifting blobs that invaded there, and we’d seen what happened on Naboo ourselves. But there was a feeling that we had to do  _ something _ . We just didn’t know what that might be.

Rey was thoughtful. She told us not to worry about it, that what we needed to do was to gather together and to trust one another as best we could. 

“You need to train together,” she said with surprising authority. “Learn to trust each other. The invaders depend on our predictability and tendency to be thrown off by anything that doesn't fit our perception of the world. They don't expect us to work together, so that's what we need to do. And that, that… balance, that makes the Force stronger. It's what we need to do to survive this, to overcome.

After about an hour she requested to return to the medbay, and she went back to dreaming, back to her battle in the Force. I sat down that afternoon with Statura, Holdo, Poe, Phasma, and Canady, and we set out our own plan for shared training, for getting the Resistance and the First Order soldiers to start working together, and the other refugees as well. We started planning the Coalition.

* * *

Every day for a month went like this: I woke up early, had breakfast, trained with my own troop of soldiers for a couple of hours, then I took food to the medbay and waited for Rey to wake up. Sometimes Poe would be with me, sometimes Statura or Holdo. During the first week the Cobalt Squadron arrived and Rose and Paige sat with me a couple of times, too. Rose was a dreamer; there were a few others on base, too. One day Chewie was there, and Rey cried into his furry shoulder. It was the only time she cried. After waking up she would stop by the ‘fresher, then we’d make our way up to the hill over the landing site and she’d squint towards the sun.

She became something of an oracle over that month. We would tell her what had happened in the past day - which other planets had suffered invasions, what groups of survivors or refugees had made their way to D’Qar, and she would close her eyes and think and offer knowledge, suggestions, predictions.

She would ask me about my dreams, too, and every day I would admit I had no memory. She praised me anyway, praised my participation in the dreaming, and then she'd look sad, always just a little bit sad.

* * *

One afternoon during the third week, after Rey was back in the medbay, we received a distress call from a freighter out of Cloud City. They’d had a monster show up there, some multi-colored organism that shone and hurt the eyes and came like the mist that covered Bespin before driving you to terror. The freighter had been ejected from hyperspace and was floating in the middle of nowhere. Every attempt to return to hyperspace was unsuccessful. It wasn’t a problem with their ship, with the drive, it was hyperspace itself. Hyperspace was rejecting them.

All we could tell them was to sit tight and wait. They set a course for the closest habitable system, hoping that it hadn’t been invaded.

When she awoke the next day, Rey told us that the one called  _ Yog Sothoth _ had found a path from his nowhere place into the hyperspace lanes.

“We don’t think he can get out of them,” she said, too calmly, “but we might be able to get in.”

It sounded crazy. Seriously, she wanted us to  _ try _ to get in? To go to  _ Yog Sothoth _ ? And what… fight this thing? Kill it?

She smiled at my incredulity. “No, Finn. We can’t kill it. I don’t think it  _ can _ be killed. But we can push it back where it belongs, and the other ones too. I believe that. And so do  _ you _ ,” she smiled sadly, “in your dreams.”

I rolled my eyes at her, but it was good natured. “Okay, fine,  _ in my dreams _ . Why do I believe this,  _ in my dreams _ ?”

She laughed and nudged me with her shoulder. “Because in your dreams you know that it’s happened before. In other places. The Great Old Ones came, and they ruled, and then they left. Not because they wanted to leave, but because the inhabitants in those places pushed them out.”

Pushed them out. Fought with weapons? What? She shook her head and turned her face to the sun - always to the sun.

“Not weapons. Well, not blasters, not bowcasters or thermal detonators.” She was quiet for a few moments, thinking.

She did this a lot. When she was thinking she’d close her eyes and tip her chin up, sometimes her lips would move as if in silent conversation. I didn’t understand what she was doing but I was afraid to ask, although I was pretty sure she couldn’t communicate with the dreamers when she was awake any more than I could. But she’d do this, then she’d let out a breath or a sigh, or the corner of her mouth would tug up or down, and then she’d get a final kind of look on her face, one of satisfaction or consternation or whatever. Then she’d open her eyes again and look into my eyes and make whatever pronouncement she had to be made.

It was strange and uncanny and unlike her. I should have known that there was something going on. That and her sadness that I just couldn't remember the dreams.

Anyway, this time after doing her thinking thing, she said:

“The place they were before didn’t have the Force, but it had something like it. Less powerful and less certain, but a power connecting everyone. It was a smaller place, just one world, not a whole galaxy. And the people there were able to use this power to push them away.”

* * *

It was very soon after that conversation that I woke up remembering a dream for the first time. It was more like an emotion than a memory, but it was there. I could remember the voices, not what they said, but I recognized Rey and Leia and Maz, Rose and the others from the base, and a few more I couldn't place. And there were many, many others that were not familiar at all. Millions of voices, tens of millions, all working together as one. It was beautiful and humbling. The monsters were there too, but there was something holding them apart from us. The Force? Maybe. Their presence was terrifying, but with so many others there it felt safe.

Rey was thrilled when I told her I remembered a dream. She was particularly interested to know who I recognized, and when I told her she seemed slightly disappointed, as though I didn't give her quite the answer she was hoping for. And she was definitely disappointed that I didn't remember details of the conversation. “That's okay,” she said. “Perhaps that will come in time.”

* * *

In fact it came very quickly. The very next night I had a dream I remembered vividly, and man I was glad I did because it was an important dream.

_ Kylo Ren was alive _ . He'd been alive the whole damn time, and Rey hadn't told me, because… well, she was clearly afraid of how I would react, and she was hoping I'd remember a dream so she wouldn't have to tell me herself. Let’s just say that my relationship with Kylo Ren up to that point hadn’t been exactly cordial.

Thing about the dreams, turns out there was a  _ dream Finn _ and a  _ not-dream Finn _ , and these two guys had whole different sets of knowledge. Dream Finn knew about the planning, knew about Kylo Ren, knew about Rey’s  _ thing _ with the guy, and thought he was an okay dude. It took not-dream Finn a while to catch up, let me tell you.

The next day Rey was relieved to discover that I knew, even though I had so many questions for her.

“So,” I said. “Kylo Ren. Force Bond. What the heck?”

She scrunched up her face. It was cute, and I tried not to let that distract me. “Yeah. It happened when he interrogated me, and then again when we fought on Starkiller. The Invasion seems to have just made it stronger.”

“Is he always there, in your head? Listening to our conversations? Is he listening to us now?”

Rey frowned, her expression thoughtful. She wouldn’t look at my face.

“I mean… yes, in a sense. He knows what I’m thinking. But Finn,” her eyes found mine; she was pleading with me, “you have to understand that he is so important in this. We were enemies, and now we’re working together. That’s what makes us stronger, all of us; like the Coalition. He and I, we’re a big part of the balance. You and him, too. But it’s not just that… it’s personal.  _ I need him _ . I don’t really understand why or how, but our connection is important to me.  _ He _ is important to me. And he's in his own situation, he needs me too.” 

This was the other part that I had trouble understanding. Kylo Ren was assumed dead; he hadn't escaped the summoning chamber, no one had. Yet he was clearly alive. He was able to communicate in the dreams, and to communicate with Rey outside of the dreams, so he was somewhere. But where?

“ _ Yog Sothoth _ took him.” Rey shrugged. “During the summoning, it saw that he might be useful, and he wasn't really a threat, so it shunted him somewhere else. He can't say, he doesn't know. He doesn't think it's a planet. It's like a space, his own little bit of space. He doesn't eat; he’s not sure he has a body, which I try not to think about.” She blushed at that and kept right on talking. “But he dreams and he can communicate with me, so that's good.”

“Is he, uh, communicating with you right now?”

Guilt flitted across her face. “Yeah. He was just telling me what to say.”

“Okay. Tell him,” I’m sorry to tell you that I hated saying this, “tell him we’ll do everything we can to get him back.”

She smiled at that, an honest one, not sad at all. “He says thanks.”

* * *

I remembered more dreams after that, and it helped so much to remember, to be able to tell the leadership about them, and to talk to Rey about them when we were awake. Unfortunately I was the only dreamer on base who was ever able to remember the dreams.

The monsters were still there, on the various planets and in the dreams. They didn't leave, but no more of them arrived. Maybe it was just that they were all already here, but it felt like a victory. It gave us a solid baseline to work from, anyway.

Training was going well. It wasn't easy, stormtroopers have very specific training, and I know from experience it's hard to break. Replacing numbers with names turned out to be an important step and eventually there were impromptu naming ceremonies happening all around the base. Former 'troopers would name themselves, or be named by their old friends or new comrades. Having a name, an identity, helped give them hope. It also gave them strength in the Force.

I could feel the difference in the dreams. The monsters seemed to get weaker there, just a bit, or at least they weren't quite as terrifying.

It was Poe who had the idea of sending out propaganda on the Holonet. Most of the news was depressing, and with the hyperspace lanes no longer available it was difficult to travel. Add to that the people who had chosen to worship the monsters as gods, sending out their own programs, it was not a good time out there in the galaxy.

Poe suggested that, if we could strengthen the Force by having just a few hundred soldiers train together, how much more might we strengthen it of thousands more across the galaxy did something similar? Millions, billions? Citizen training, a program of love in the midst of horror.

So we did it. Poe, mostly, but also Rey, Phasma and some of the former 'troopers and even some of the officers. You haven't lived until you’ve seen Admiral Holdo with her arm around Captain Canady, let me tell you. 

That worked, too. It took time, but it seemed we had time. Once the monsters were settled they seemed content to just hang out; there were enough so-called worshippers to keep them satisfied, I guess.

You could feel it in the dreams. You could really tell. The galaxy was working together to strengthen the Force and many of the people doing it didn't even realize it.

* * *

It was the Deep Core Conjunction that finally enabled us to push the monsters out. Holdo was the one who realized what was possible. Pretty much everyone else in the galaxy had long ago written astrology off as superstition, but she still followed the practices of Gatalenta and knew quite a lot about the astrological beliefs of other worlds as well, various interpretations of how the alignments of stars and planets increase or decrease the power of the Force. Early on, before the hyperspace lanes were taken over, Holdo met with Rey a couple of times, up on that sunny hill. Rey told her about the Jedi texts that were in the tree on Ahch-to, and Holdo was interested enough to send Snap to go back and get them.

The manuscripts were unreadable for the most part, ancient languages written in unknown scripts, but the diagrams themselves were invaluable. Holdo was able to put together a small team: a group of scholars to trawl through the manuscripts, and a group of scientists to track the movement of planets in relation to the stars. It turned out that among the refugees on D’Qar were some of the best minds in the galaxy, which was lucky for us.

As Holdo’s team did their work, and we sent out our propaganda, Rey and I kept tabs on the strength of the monsters in the dreams. We depended on reports from individuals on the monsters outside of the dreams, but because of the cults and various other things they were often unreliable. It was hard to tell, because we were dreaming and because there was no rubric to measure against, but it did seem as the days passed and days turned to weeks that the monsters were weakening. But only so much, and never enough that we felt strong enough to more actively push back against them.

For months we were at an equilibrium. The monsters grew no stronger, as long as we kept the propaganda coming, but neither did we. It was a long time, too long, but it did give us time to plan for what we could do if, or when, the Force finally got strong enough. Plan for how we could push the monsters back, and how we could bring Kylo Ren back from wherever it was he’d been taken. 

It was almost six long months later that two things happened in relatively quick succession. First, we got news from Naboo that the eldritch monstrosity there had retreated back into the Abyss. It was still present but it was no longer seen and its power was less than it had been; there were even reports of cultists unconverting, which hadn’t happened before. Soon after there were similar reports from other worlds. We could feel a difference in the dreams, too, although we still didn’t think it was enough.

Second, Holdo's team had made a discovery. Diagrams in the Jedi manuscripts described an occurrence, something that the scientists figured would only happen a handful of times in the long life of the galaxy: an alignment of planets from the major systems of the Deep Core, spiraling out from the black hole at the center of the galaxy, a great conjunction that would apparently give increased strength to the Force for a short period of time. It wasn't clear how much strength or for how long it would last, but this was clearly a good thing for us. 

If you've guessed that a conjunction was on its way, congratulations, because you're right. The scientists told us that the planets were moving toward the positions illustrated by the diagrams and would match them exactly within a few weeks time for some number of standard hours. This explained why things were changing; as the conjunction approached, the Force would naturally become stronger.

That was our window, exactly what we'd been waiting for, so the race was on. I say we'd been planning but to be honest so much of it was guesswork. I was reminded of what Han Solo said to me on Starkiller, when I told him we could use the Force to figure out how to shut down the shields to let the Resistance fighters in to attack. He looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the galaxy and yelled at me: “That's not how the Force works!” Ah, man, it's a real shame you'll never get to meet him. Anyway, it turns out sometimes that  _ is _ how the Force works, so the joke’s on him, right? I think he'd appreciate it.

* * *

There were two things we’d have to do, and no clear idea of how to do either of them, but we couldn’t let that slow us down.

The first thing we needed was Kylo Ren. There were a few reasons, we thought. One was simple logistics: if we pushed the Old Ones out without getting him first, he could end up being trapped forever. Rey wouldn’t allow that; it became clear as time passed that he was, in fact, her priority. At the time I tried not to think too hard about why; I was still angry at him for giving me the scar on my back, and for generally being an evil person. We had no idea how to get him, but Rey trusted that the Force would guide her when the time came, and what else was there to do? We also needed him for balance. Rey and Kylo, former enemies working together, individually strong in the Force; we all believed it would make the… whatever it was that would happen, would make it stronger. So we needed him out, he’d be stronger outside of wherever it was that  _ Yog Sothoth _ had trapped him.

The second thing we needed to do was actually push the monsters out of our dimension. They’d come over from somewhere else, and we’d have to send them back. Again, what exactly this meant was unclear, and again we just had to trust in the Force. We thought maybe it would have something to do with the hyperspace lanes, but we weren’t really sure. I like a good, solid plan, so I found this approach troubling, it made me deeply uncomfortable, but there wasn’t any other option. When I would complain to Rose about it, in the evening, she’d hold me and tell me I needed to have faith. So I tried.

The weeks passed quickly and the time of the Deep Core Conjunction arrived. Things were different, everyone could feel it, in the dreams and in the real world. It’s just that the Force was so strong. For example, I could feel things I couldn’t feel before; other people, and the connections between us. I couldn’t do the kinds of things Rey could do, moving things around or reading minds, but I sure could sense a lot more that was completely new to me. 

That day, Rey didn’t wake up alone; Leia and Luke both woke up with her. This was part of the plan, but we were all a bit surprised it actually worked. The Force was with us so far. We all went up on the hill, Rose and the other dreamers were with us too, although even at that point they didn’t remember the dreams. We sat around in a circle, Rey was on my left and Rose on my right, and we held hands and just… communed in the Force. Kylo was there too, communicating with Rey from wherever he was, and there was a very sudden burst of something, and then Kylo Ren was there, lying in the midst of us, dressed in his black dress armor with the mask still covering his face. 

I could sense him, and he felt like a mess. We found out later that he’d been trapped in some kind of pocket dimension that was operating on  _ Yog Sothoth _ time. As far as Kylo was concerned, the summoning had happened only seconds before he arrived on D’Qar, and everything that had happened in the intervening months - the dreams, the planning, the long conversations with Rey - had been dropped on him in a single moment. Human minds aren’t designed to work like that, so he was rightly confused and upset, and Rey was the only person he’d let get close to him. She helped him take off his helmet, and they took one look at each other and I could tell they were in love. I couldn’t even bring myself to be mad about it, although maybe I held Rose’s hand a bit tighter than I had before.

The Conjunction was coming to its fruition, we could perceive the planets moving, feel the Force intensify as the minutes passed. So the next thing that needed to happen was the fight, the push, and we still didn’t know what form that might take. Rey had just suggested that we head to the  _ Falcon _ to attempt a jump into hyperspace when it happened.

And what happened? We never would have guessed it: everyone fell asleep. And I don’t mean just the Force sensitive people, I mean every single sentient being on every single world in the galaxy fell asleep at once. And because the Force was there for all of us, all of them, nobody even got hurt when this happened. Pretty amazing, right? 

We all dreamed, all of us together, and it was  _ so much more _ . Trillions and trillions of sentient minds together in the dream, with the Force binding us together, connecting us, there was no way we couldn’t win. The monsters were there, but we  _ pushed _ , all of us together - I’m still not sure  _ how _ , but we did - and then they were gone. Just gone. It was easy, there at the end. The hard part was everything leading up to it.

Then everyone woke up. Our little group was still sitting in a circle on that sunny hill on D’Qar, Kylo Ren lying with his head in Rey’s lap, her hands in his hair. Leia and Luke, smiling and hugging, and I got a kiss and a hug from Rose too, of course. She didn’t remember the dream, even then, most people didn’t, but that didn’t matter. They’d all worked together to do what needed to be done, everyone in the galaxy.

That was pretty much it. We got word very soon that the hyperspace lanes were open, and that the monsters were gone from every planet they’d conquered. There were a small number of cultists who refused to abandon their religion, and they retreated to the planet where Hux had picked up the materials about the Great Old Ones many years before. Most cultists unconverted, though, and after a time life returned to normal. 

You know the story from here. Kylo Ren dropped the identity he’d adopted when he joined the First Order and went back to being Ben Solo. He and Rey joined the Coalition as Force advisors, and they got married about a year after we took back the galaxy. I married Rose about the same time, Poe and Kaydel and Phasma got married too… lots of people getting married, having children, just a regular celebration. Life was good. Life  _ is _ good.

But we shouldn’t forget, which is one of the reasons I wanted to make this recording. You shouldn’t forget what happened, what we had to go through to save the galaxy. But my main reason for doing this isn’t for the history books: it’s for  _ you _ . I want you, both of you, to know just how hard your parents worked to save us all. Especially your mom, she was so brave and calm, always, and even when things didn’t make sense (which was most of the time) I was always willing to follow her lead. You’d do well to keep that in mind. And your dad… well, he grew on me. I forgave him for the scar, eventually, and now I’m honored to call him my friend. When they asked me and Rose to be your hold-parents before you were born, I was so happy I cried. And this is part of my gift to you. Your parents are wonderful people and they love you so very much, and so do I.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a partner piece to my unfinished but no longer on hiatus story [Unmarked](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3315230/chapters/7243718), an MCU/Lovecraft mashup in which the Great Old Ones ruled earth for a time during the Middle Ages (it was originally planned as a critique of the soulmark trope, and it is, but in the usual way it ran away from me, so there's a lot more than just that going on). So in this story when they talk about another world where the Great Old Ones were pushed out, they're talking about Earth. It's fun to be an author, you can do shit like this.
> 
> If you enjoy the story please leave kudos or a comment!
> 
> I'm leofgyth on Tumblr, come say hello.


End file.
